ABSTRACT
One very simple but widespread misunderstanding needs to be cleared out of the way, once for all, at the outset of any discussion of political independence. Independence is not the same as omnipotence. There is no nation in the world, not even Soviet Russia or the United States, which can do whatever it chooses to do: the policy of Soviet Russia has been blocked in the Middle East, and that of America frustrated in South-East Asia. Yet nobody would dream of denying that Russia and the United States are independent, self-governing states. Every nation in the world depends both for its defence and for its livelihood upon some degree of intercourse and co-operation with others. This is so, and always has been so, but nobody has ever thought that the fact was inconsistent with the reality of political independence and self-government.' This is as true of the pygmies as of the giants. Russia and America believe they need allies and go to great lengths to get and keep them; and the events of recent years and even months has reminded us how dependent they both are on imports, despite their huge size and strength. Switzerland and Iceland are undeniably politically independent and self-governed; yet they depend on trade for their very existence, and upon an external balance of power for their safety.
